Art I cles

The big question is arises about what does make it interest to adopt this technology to build the building. What does the advantage of using this technology? What is the root cause to use this method to build a building? What is a “Carbon Neutral” Building? I am trying to cover all the details in this article, which are related to Carbon Negative building.

What is the Carbon Negative building and from where this idea came?

As we know, for the last two decades all the environmentalists, scientists, many organizations and individuals people all are giving emphasis to reduce the temperature of the world. Temperature increment is the greatest factor in climate change. What step should be taken to tackle this humongous problem? Unanimous the opinion of all scientists from the globe are the same, and they have reached on this conclusion, carbon is the prime factor to increase the temperature. This is the root cause of global warming.

So how will to tackle this gigantic issues. As a result, all parts of the world started to thing to reduce the emission of carbon, for this purpose, many organizations, individuals, scientists, environment-saving people all are started to create pressure on their government. As well as they started to encourage their government to take some action. As a result, the term "carbon neutral" or “Carbon Negative Building” has emerged for the infrastructure sector.

The governments of worldwide have started to curtail carbon emissions by introducing new policies and regulations; the holistic purpose of this rule and regulation is to bring down the level of carbon reduction as soon as possible and to keep the temperature at least on the present level.

Carbon Negative building definition means, which related to measuring, reducing and offsetting carbon energy used by either a building or an organization as a whole. When these following things are implemented to build a building then that building comes on the categories to “Carbon Negative building”. These following thing should keep in mind to build a Carbon Neutral building:-

1. Integrating passive design strategies

2. Designing a high-performance building envelope

3. Specifying energy-efficient HVAC systems, lighting, and appliances

4. Installing on-site renewable energy

But the above definition varies from one country to another. There are some rules and regulations regarding “Carbon Negative building”. Anyone can visit their country website like “Department of Energy and Climate Change,” where they can get full details about “carbon neutrality”. I am including some website links of some countries below for more understanding about this.

Rules and Regulation| Bureau of Energy Efficiency of India

https://beeindia.gov.in/content/rules-and-regulations

UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, “Guidance on carbon neutrality”,

https://www.ukgbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Net-Zero-Carbon-Buildings-A-framework-definition.pdf

EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-performance-of-buildings/energy-performance-buildings-directive

Canada Green Building Council

https://www.cagbc.org/CAGBC/Zero_Carbon/CAGBC/Zero_Carbon/zero_carbon.aspx?hkey=958b46e1-50df-44e0-bca9-e384793d12dc

USA green building council

https://in.usgbc.org/resources/federal-guide-greenbuild-2019

Please go through above mention website for deeper knowledge.

So this is one of the reasons architects are going to “carbon Neutral Building” and 2nd most holistic reason is no one wants to keep himself behind to give their contribution to reducing carbon emission.

Recently the Norwegian Architect Snohetta has announced and taken a pledge. He will design only carbon negative Buildings, which means their project will produce more energy compared to consume over the lifetime of the building. Like that “Stirling Prize winner Mikhail Riches” said, her aim is to build a “zero-carbon building” from this year. These are a few names who are committed to building a “Carbon Negative building”.

Courtesy Dezeen

There is some feature to build a “Carbon Negative building”. How does it effective to minimize carbon emission.

1. Reduce the use of fossil fuel energy during the process of the supply chain and the process of construction.

2. Use sophisticated technology to demolish the building, the process should be used, which reduces fewer greenhouse gases.

3. Build the structure very airtight.

4. keep the structure breathable.

5. A building should be durable, low-maintenance, fire-proof, resilient, and all weather-resistance.

6. Should be used more insulation.

There is plenty of the product are available which can be used to build a building, which helps to reduce the carbon emission. These can be used in different parts of the building, which based on wood.

1. Plywood, wood structure panel

2. Finger-jointed lumber

3. Roof trusses and floor trusses

Other natural carbon-negative materials can be used at the time of construction, which is used in many constructions to minimize carbon emission. Like flex, hemp fibers, hemp shiv, jute, paper, reed, and straw. These materials can be used in different places in the building.